NeighborHub grant program to help small nonprofits build capacity, address issues

Program will award $30,000 to each of five local groups to work on key issues and improve a physical, community space

Chamber will help groups identify, capture metrics to show impact of their work

General Motors Corp. and the Detroit Regional Chamber are launching a program to help grassroots nonprofits in Detroit build capacity to solve issues in their community and support those efforts.

Last year, when General Motors Co. put out a request for proposals for the city of Detroit, it received about 100 grant applications mostly from grassroots community groups with important causes.

The groups had heart and were looking to address critical causes, but they weren't sharing the metrics and social outcomes the car maker requires of its grantees, said GM Chief Philanthropic Officer Lori Wingerter. As a result, those groups didn't move through the granting process

However, this left Wingerter thinking about what the company could do to help, and that led to joint development of a new neighborhood grant program with the Detroit Regional Chamber.

GM is granting $150,000 to help the Chamber fund the pilot NeighborhoodHub Community Grant program which would provide $30,000 grants to a community group in each of five Detroit neighborhoods. Proposals will need to include programming focused on needs in that community and improving an accessible physical space — whether a vacant storefront, a coffee shop where people gather, space in a local library or in a community church basement — to house the programming.

Programs could include helping high school students fill out financial aid forms; mobility issues, such how to get kids to school; or revitalization of local parks.

"We're leaving it open to whatever the issue may be," Wingerter said.

The Chamber can provide the business acumen support neighborhood groups need to understand how and what they should be looking at to show their impact, Wingerter said. It also has relationships with neighborhood groups.

"We're looking for organizations that are willing to collaborate with their neighborhood businesses, residents, schools, local government and other nonprofits to create solutions to the problems that are most important to them," said Terry Rhadigan, executive director of Corporate Giving at GM.

The Chamber will administer the program, starting with an RFP in July, and supporting community groups through the grant period that will include requirements to come up with metrics, blogs to share the impact their work is having in their communities and meetings of all the grantees in the group to share what they've learned.

The goal in developing the NeighborhoodHub program was to do something impactful that would build on the other neighborhood efforts happening in the city, not duplicate them, said Tammy Carnrike, chief operating officer of the Detroit Regional Chamber.

"A stronger Detroit, in all corners, will boost economic growth in our region, which is why we are partnering with GM to empower residents and neighborhoods through the nonprofit organizations that are closest to the communities," Carnrike said.

The goal is to not only help the five pilot neighborhoods build capacity to work on important issues but also to expand the program to other Detroit neighborhoods if it proves successful, she said.